Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/66

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��HISTORY OF OHIO.

��The Delawarcs were anxious for peace ; even the Mingoes, whose relatives had been slain at Yellow Creek, and Captina, were restrained; but Logan, who had been turned to an inveterate foe to tlie Americans, came suddenly upon the Monongahela settlements, took thirteen scalps in revenge for the loss of his family, returned home and expressed himself ready to treat with the Long Knives, the Virginians. Had Connelly acted properly at this juncture, the war might have been ended; but his actions only incensed both borderers and In- dians. So obnoxious did he become that Lord Dunmore lost faith in him, and severely repri- manded him.

To put a stop to the depredations of the Indians, two large bodies of troops were gathered in Vir- ginia, one under Gen. Andrew Lewis, and one under command of Dunmore himself. Before the armies could meet at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, their objective point, Lewis' army, which arrived first, was attacked by a furious band of Dela- wares, Shawanees, Iroquois and Wyandots. The conflict was bitterly prolonged by the Indians, who, under the leadership of Cornstalk, were deter- mined to make a decisive effort, and fought till late at night (October 10, 1774), and then only by a strategic move of Lewis' command — which re- sulted in the defeat of the Indians, compelling them to cross the Ohio — was the conflict ended. Mean- while, Dunmore's army came into the enemy's country, and, being joined by the remainder of Lewis' command, pressed forward intending to an- nihilate the Indian towns. Cornstalk and his chiefs, however, sued for peace, and the conflict closed. Dunmore established a camp on Sippo Creek, where he held conferences with the natives and concluded the war. When he left the country, he stationed 100 men at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, a few more at Pittsburgh, and another corps at Wheeling, then called Fort Fincastle. Dunmore intended to return to Pittsburgh the next spring, meet the Indians and form a definite peace ; but the revolt of the colonies prevented. However, he opened several offices for the sale of lands in the West, some of which were in the limits of the Pennsylvania colony. This led to the old boundary dispute again; but before it could be settled, the Revolution began, and Lord Dunmore's, as well as almost all other land speculations in the West, were at an end.

In 1775 and 1776, the chief events transpiring in the West relate to the treaties with the Indians, and the endeavor on the part of the Americans to

��have them remain neutral in the family quarrel now coming on, which they could not understand. The British, like the French, however, could not let them alone, and finally, as a retaliatory measure, Congress, under advice of Washington, won some of them over to the side of the colonies, getting their aid and holding them neutral. The colonies only offered them rewards for prisoners ; never, like the British, offering rewards for scalps. Under such rewards, the atrocities of the Indians in some quar- ters were simply horrible. The scalp was enough to get a reward, that was a mark of Indian valor, too, and hence, helpless innocence and decrepit old age were not spared. They stirred the minds of the pioneers, who saw the protection of their fire- sides a vital point, and led the way to the scheme of Col. Clarke, who was now, as has been noted, the leading spirit in Kentucky. He saw through the scheme of the British, and determined, by a quick, decisive blow, to put an end to it, and to cripple their power in the West.

Among the acts stimulating Clarke, was the attack on Fort Henry, a garrison about one-half mile above Wheeling Creek, on the Ohio, by a renegade white man, Simon Girty, an agent in the employ of the British, it is thought, and one of the worst wretches ever known on the frontier. When Girty attacked Fort Henry, he led his red allies in regu- lar military fashion, and. attacked it without mercy. The defenders were brave, and knew with whom they were contending. Great bravery was displayed by the women in the fort, one of whom, a Miss Zane, carried a keg of gunpowder from a cabin to the fort. Though repeatedly fired at by the sav- ages, she reached the fort in safety. After awhile, however, the effect of the frontiersmen's shots began to be felt, and the Indians sullenly withdrew. Re-enforcements coming, the fort was held, and Girty and his band were obliged to flee.

Clarke saw that if the British once got con- trol over the Western Indians the scene at Fort Henry would be repeated, and would not likely, in all cases, end in favor of the Americans. With- out communicating any of his designs, he left Har- rodsburg about the 1st of October, 1777, and reached the capital of Virginia by November 5. Still keeping his mind, he awaited a favorable op- portunity to broach his plans to those in power, and, in the meanwhile, carefully watched the exist- ing state of feeling. When the opportunity came, Clarke broached his^plans to Patrick Henry, Gov- ernor of Virginia, who at once entered warmly into them, recognizing their great importance.

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